Atkins Or Low Carb Diets, Have You Tried It?
I am really just wanting to slim down, not lose weight. My weight and body fat % are in normal range, but my lower body is thick or a little big ie: thighs, booty. I want to have a smaller lower body. I am considering Atkins or Drastically Reducing Carbs. THOUGHTS? or EXPERIENCE?
My motivation was to quit gaining weight. I never imagined I could LOSE weight without hunger or exercise, since I’ve become disabled. I had to get my out of control appetite under control. I started doing Atkins low carb way of eating 5 years ago. I never bothered weighing or measuring til I’d noticed that my clothes got huge quick. When my health improved dramatically also, I knew this was my new way of life and since it’s eat all you want (of low carb foods) I know I can do this for life.
You will lose more body fat eating protein & fat (don’t eat protein alone) than not eating AT ALL. To lose weight fast eat all you want but nothing but meat, eggs, healthy oils, mayo, butter and half an avocado a day (you’ll need added potassium). Keep the calories high and the fat percentage high, at least 65% of calories. Adding in green vegetables & some cheese will continue weight loss but at a slower pace.
Your body won’t release fat stores if you lower calories below what it needs. It will slow your metabolism to compensate and store every spare ounce as fat. If you continue lowering your calories, it will continue lowering that set point, til you can survive off nothing and store fat on anything. The body will only release it’s fat stores if it knows there is plenty of food.
Eating carbs while trying to lose body fat is terribly inefficient. When in glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) you have to lower your calories (which slows your metabolism) and exercise heavily to deplete your glycogen stores before burning body fat.
The core of the Atkins program is converting your body from glycolysis (burning glucose as fuel) to ketosis (burning fat as fuel). You need to keep your fat levels at >65% of your calories, if you don’t your body will still remain in glycolysis by converting 58% of excess protein into glucose (via gluconeogenesis).
It takes minimum of 3 days to convert your body to ketosis, (but only one bite to convert back to glycolysis) you will probably feel sluggish the first week but most people feel better than ever thereafter.
Simple carbohydrates (sugar, flour, bread, cereal, pasta, potatoes, rice) triggers insulin which can store the calories you eat into fat. The more protein you eat the more the fat burning hormone glucagon is released. The more carbohydrate you eat the more the fat storage hormone insulin is released.
Simple carbs are addictive and can be disastrous to our health. The best way to break the addiction is NO carbs for 3 days. Make a huge batch of deviled eggs and eat one every time you want “something” have huge bacon, peppers, mushrooms & cheese omelets for breakfast. Pork chops for lunch. Get pork rinds and eat them with tuna salad. Steak for dinner. Make a huge sugar free cheese cake for dessert. Eat so much you won’t feel deprived of anything. By the fourth day, your addiction will be gone and you can start making healthy choices.
High insulin levels promote inflammation, weight gain, hunger and unbalance other hormones. Controlling your insulin level will balance out other hormones & allow human growth hormone (HGH) to be produced naturally so you will gain lean muscle even without exercise. Any exercise will greatly increase your muscle mass with high HGH levels.
Ground flax seed (2 Tbsp) 1/4 cup of water, cinnamon, artificial sweetener, mix in a raw egg – let sit 10 min to absorb liquid, put some cream cheese in the middle and nuke for 1.5 min. for hot cereal or 2 min. for more of a muffin type thing. Great low carb, high fiber treat. Suggested for daily fiber needs.
The first 2 weeks you can have several cups a day of (mostly) lettuce and celery, cucumbers, radishes, mushrooms, peppers and more variety of vegetables thereafter add 5 grams per day additional (20 grams day first 2 weeks, 25grams 3rd week, 30grams 4th week etc) every week til you gain weight, then you subtract 10 carbs. That would give you your personal carb level (everyone is different and it depends on how active you are.)
Start with meat & fats & salads for a couple of weeks and then you can slowly add in more green veg, wk4 fresh cheeses, wk5 nuts & seeds, wk6 berries, wk7 legumes, wk8 other fruits, wk9 starchy veg and lastly wk10 whole grains. You will learn how your body reacts to different foods. As long as you remain <9 carbs per hour, you will maintain insulin control, and shouldn’t gain weight.
Many people gain weight on high carb, then switch to low carb to lose weight & then are shocked when they return to high carb that they gain weight. Many people can return to moderate carb levels but very few can really eat all they want of sugar and maintain weight or health.
I wouldn’t recommend the Atkins diet to anybody. It is necessary to include protein in your diet, but eating too much meat and fat will only build up toxins in your body. You should also consider other health risks associated with Atkins such as high cholesterol.
Although low carb diets can be successful for short term weight loss, the best approach would be to eat a healthy, balanced diet and exercise regularly.
I did it and lost a lot of weight. If you don’t really want to lose, maybe you should just cut back on carbs – like give up bread and processed foods.
Here’s what I did, but I lost a lot of weight.http://www.ehow.com/how_5258331_modify-s…
please listen carefully,
i tried a vegetarian version of atkins, i went crazy and was only eating egg whites for a few days and i thought i was gonna barf if i had one more egg. what im trying to say is that diets dont work. heres what does work:
-exercising regularly
-eating smart
-severely limit junk food and white carbs (pasta, bread)
theres a list of foods on the internet that burn more calories than they contain, and i eat a ton of those. i exercise too at least 4 times a week and i lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. 10 more to go!
hope this helps!
It works well for me, but my best friend tried it and didn’t lose like I did. She does well on weight watchers. So, experiment and see what happens.